Drunk Tank Pink

And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave

Why are people named Kim, Kelly, and Ken more likely to donate to Hurricane Katrina victims than to Hurricane Rita victims? Are you really more likely to solve puzzles if you watch a light bulb illuminate? How did installing blue lights along a Japanese railway line halt rising crime and suicide rates? Can decorating your walls with the right artwork make you more honest? The human brain is fantastically complex, having engineered space travel and liberated nuclear energy, so it's no wonder that we resist the idea that we're deeply influenced by our surroundings. As profound as they are, these effects are almost impossible to detect both as they're occurring and in hindsight. Drunk Tank Pink is the first detailed exploration of how our environment shapes what we think, how we feel, and the ways we behave.

Opinion

From the critics

Community Activity

Comment

Credibility pre-review:
Page 9
"In his native Russian tongue, Vyacheslav Voronin's name means “slave.”
Typical old slavic names with with "slav" on their end should not mean "slave" because it sound like for an english speaking writer. This is an insulting news to Russian people, unless he will provide a reference. Factuality, dear writer.

ksoles
Jun 19, 2013

Why does a strategically placed picture of eyes decrease theft more than one of flowers? How does exposure to money (real or fake) increase pain tolerance and decrease feelings of empathy? Can the paint colour of a room truly influence mood? In his engaging new book, social psychologist Adam Alter shows how our complex relationship with the environment (both external and internal) shapes how we think, feel, and act.

Words and images bombard us daily, affecting human behavior in unexpected and mostly unconscious ways. In three sections, "Drunk Tank Pink" explores the world within us, the world between us, and the world around us. Alter offers a non-stop narrative of anecdotes, facts and research experiments that, when considered together, form a quirky patchwork of the human psyche. Alter's findings certainly compel the reader and he fluently discusses many psychological constructs like nominative determinism, diffusion of responsibility, and social facilitation.

Humans constantly relate (both consciously and unconsciously) to a complex web formed by the animate and the inanimate. "Drunk Tank Pink" credibly debunks the notion that anyone thinks, feels or behaves entirely on free will.